So last night my Mom decided to toss a nice thick steak on the BBQ for dinner.  I was feeling experimental, so I grabbed a Rutabaga and began my experiment.. ok, not experiment but I wanted to try something new.  See.. I love french fries (who doesn't am I right?) but they arent good for you (nag nag nag) so I figured I would try something.

I peeled the lovely waxy outside of the Rutabaga, sliced and sliced it again (so they looked like fries). I then stuck them in a microwave safe container, added a bit of water and covered them.  Tossed them in the microwave for about 10 mins until them were almost soft.  Took them out and let them cool a bit. Next, I tossed them in a little olive oil (or you can spray them with low fat cooking spray).  Next, I mixed together some breadcrumbs, parsley, pepper and cumin (because cumin rocks my socks) and tossed the rutabaga in it. 

Put them on a cookie tray and into the over at 375.  They took about an hour (give or take) and let me tell you, OMG so good! My mom had made baked potatos aswell and I just left them since the faux fries were better (and I didnt feel like Iwaas eating a veggie).  Dipped in ketchup = Onomnomnom.

So ya.. just figured I would share incase anyone else was craving fries (but wanted a low low fat substitution).

So the other day a friend of mine posted about the official beginning of her weight loss efforts.

When I met her a few years ago, she was heavier then me. She also gave birth to her son 3 months after I had Mia.

She is already, without really trying, down to 178 or so. I am still sitting at about 200. So I'm unable to pretend that I'm not overweight anymore.

I already posted in my personal lj, but I would love to know what all of you snack on during the day. One of my big problems is that I'm constantly eating (grazing) which would be no problem if I was eating healthy stuff, which of course I'm not.

Once I'm used to grazing on healthy stuff, I need to work on portion control..

But yeah.. right now my goal is to start eating better and try to get out walking with Mia at least 3 times a week. I'd like to get back down to about 170 (my just prior to pregnancy weight).

The looong term goal is to get back down to about 150, which is what I weighed at the end of high school. But thats very long term... = (

Where is everyone? Did you all fall off the healthy thing?

Well, tomorrow morning I'm back on my diet.  August was a rough month of drinking (I'm talking about like, four 2-4s to myself in that month).  Gained like 3-4 pounds I think.. so back on WW tomorrow (not going to meeting just following the philosphies of it at home) and hope to lose another 10-15 pounds (depending on what I weight tomorrow morning, I would like to be 140 and was 150 when I hit my lifetime WW goal). But that goal may change.  I know what I want to look like.  So i may lose less that 10-15. Who knows.  Next week I am back at the gym (havent been all summer!).  Only problem is I cant go Mondays or Tuesdays due to evening things I do so I may try to go in the mornings those days. We'll see. I'll probably be half asleep and fall off the treadmill.

How's everyone else doing? It's fall! Don't be falling back into old habits (bad pun.. I know)

So, has anyone breastfed, and lost weight or had a lot to lose while breastfeeding?

I've decided I simply must buckle down now and lose the weight of two pregnancies... My current weight: 229 My goal weight: 160ish- and muscley!

My ideal goal would be to be able to again rock climb and swim long distances, to go on long back country hikes and to do some of the tougher back country cross country ski routes. I'm a burly mountain woman (BMW) at heart and long to be able to do all that again!

So far I am using spark people. Now, the babyfit part (which is for breastfeeding moms) says I need to consume something like 2,200-2,700 calories a day. It says that consuming less than that while breastfeeding results in 'starvation mode' and I won't shed fat- I'll shed muscle mass and store the fat.
One problem- I am consuming MAYBE 1300 calories to 1700 a day. That's a good day where I feel like I've eaten like a pig. On this sort of calorie intake I've never lost a single pound. I don't know where to fit more food in! I suppose it is possible that I've been storing up the fat like a momma bear and need to reach that balance somewhere between exercising a ton and eating what feels like a ton (but of all good food).
So that's my plan:
Exercise a ton, eat lots of good food. No pop, no fast food (except for the occasional treat) and focus on my goal. Count my calories to make sure I'm eating enough (God that sounds weird) and track it all at sparkpeople. Take my prenatal vitamin every day, and drink loads of water. Both of those are for my girlie and myself.
I'm on my third day of my 'diet' now and feel great.

Ohh! Anyone know of good exercises/stretches to help a sore shoulder/neck?

This isn't really health-related but i know a couple of us are interested in food/cooking as a hobby, so it's semi-relevant here. I came across a podcast that I thought I'd share with those who DO have those hobbies. It's called Munchcast. You can find them here though it seems their blog was hacked and all the backlog stuff is gone :( I found them by searching Itunes for Munchcast and got all the back episodes (the one on Norwegian food rather cracked me up.) 

It's been quiet around here lately, girls! How is everyone doing with their health goals?

I'm to my first goal of 135lbs. This is the major goal and anything else is really just bonus. I've been thinner before but only after being really sick for several months, so I looked terrible. 5 more lbs at this point would be nice, since I'm sure I'd look better at 130 if I were healthier than that one time.

My metabolism has obviously taken a boost from eating better and getting so much physical activity from the landscaping work. Lately, as long as I don't really go overboard, I don't have to try very hard. For the most part, healthier choices have ingrained into my habits and when I stray from that, it isn't to the extreme.

My big goal is something I can't really work on right now. When the work season is over and winter starts to set in, I really want to work out daily with the WiiFit so I don't reverse all my progress. Winter is bad for me. I don't get much work and I get depressed, eat poorly because I get depressed, and then get more depressed because I'm gaining weight. I WILL NOT DO THAT THIS YEAR. I refuse.

One major improvement that I CAN work on right now is to eat more vegetables. I just got back from a grocery shopping trip and when I got all my loots piled up onto the scanner belt, I looked at them. Whole grains, check. Healthy dairy, check. Rice, lean frozen meals, lean meats, healthy snacks (triscuits, hummus, etc). Umm...where's the veggies?

Granted, when I walked past the frozen veggies I didn't buy any because I knew I had some at home. But let's be honest here, those veggies have just been sitting there in the freezer all lonely and wishing to be nommed.

I will try harder to eat them. I can't keep many fresh veggies around because I let them go bad, so I stick with the frozen stuff, but I need to keep ignoring the frozen veggies. :p

Why hello!  It's been...like...months.  I kind of moved out of the place I was living and therefore lost computer access about a week after I created this comm, and by the time I got it back I had pretty much forgotten.  But I'm alive and back and hoping to hop back on the bandwagon!  On my lunch break, in the middle of a work day that is going to hell in a decorative pink basket.  Will update again tonight.  Hopefully I'll be up to making it to the gym.

Right, so I haven't updated much lately have I?

I'm still losing gradually and was 138.5 last time I checked. I am starting to cook more meals and wean off of the Lean Cuisine and Lean Gourmet style meals. I will probably still keep a good stock of them around. Landscaping work can be very tiring and it's nice to have an easy option for dinner if I don't feel like cooking.

A great tip for these little frozen meals: They're not always very filling. I like to keep bags of frozen vegetables around and toss in a handful or two into the frozen meal before I microwave it. The extra veggies are good for you, will help fill you up, and probably won't break your calorie budget for the day.

I'm enjoying Wii Fit so far, although I don't train daily. It's great for days like today, though. I am rained out of work for the day and therefore will not be getting the workout I normally do from planting gardens.

My long-term goal is 130lbs. I'm at a point where I'm very satisfied with how I'm looking and feeling, so I'm not looking ahead to how long it will take me to get to that goal. As long as I don't gain back, I'm happy to just continue on as I have been.

So I'm updating today.

Went to my second WW meeting, which means my first weigh-in...3.6 pounds lost! *does a happy dance*

And today, Sunday, is day 5 with NO SODA. I've had a couple cups of tea in there, but other than that no caffeine at all. My body is finally getting used to life without stimulants. The last few days, after the headaches stopped of course, I've been really draggy, but this morning I got up and decided that I was going to get things done today. Not groggy or drowsy, but I was awake when I woke up, if that makes sense. I won't lie, I *miss* soda. I really want one right now. But I know from the last time I tried to break my caffeine addiction, if I have one I will have more. So I can't give in to it until I stop craving it.

I'm not sure how this week is going to be. I'm struggling with getting my water in, because I haven't really gotten into the habit of it yet. Also, I had pizza Friday night, which isn't bad in itself, but I was off all day Saturday and didn't really eat much. I think my stomach said "full-fat cheese? WTF do I do with this now?" and so I spent yesterday fairly queasy and only ate crackers and a banana. Oh well, not much I can do about it but do the best I can the rest of the week, right?

I'm also trying to fight the temptation to buy a Wii and Wii Fit. I really can't spend the money, but all the reviews I've read make me want it. A lot. So I'm tempted to use my economic stimulus check that way, rather than the responsible way of paying down some bills. But I'm going to be good. (For now.)

How are y'all doing?

So, who has this so far, and what do you think of it?

I had a blast playing around with it for the first time. My fitness age is 31, which isn't half bad. I know a few months ago, it would probably have been closer to my husband's fitness age of 50. My BMI is also now in the Normal range. I've set a fitness goal of getting down to 22 BMI, which would mean another 12 lbs lost. I'm at about 140 right now, but since I weighed in the evening, it was more. So figure at least 10 lbs lost from what my morning weigh-ins have been. That's pretty reasonable, I think.

I think I'm going to try and go with a schedule of waking up in the morning, weighing and doing a fitness check, and do a few yoga poses before I start my day. Then, when I come home from work, I'll try to do some exercises. I think I should base my evening exercises on what I did for work during the day.

Some aspects of landscaping are great for strength but don't do much cardio. Other things are great for cardio, but not as much for strength. I think no matter what my day involves, the balance exercises would be good. I spend a lot of the day bent over digging in the dirt, so working on balance in the evenings is a good idea I think.

I felt rather energized after 30 minutes of various exercises and now I'm getting some housecleaning done instead of sitting on my bum. Hooray!

I missed last Friday! Oh Noes! Actually and the Friday before that Oh Noes! Bad Miika!

Well I think my last official update here I had hit my WW goal or 150 pounds (149.8 pounds to be exact).  Which was followed by a 150.2 :( But I was still in my maintenance allowance. So I was still good.  I then missed a week at WW due to vacationing in my home country of Scotland (ok, well my grandparents home country) which included fried breakfasts and 3 course meals (which always included some great desserts).  After coming home, I was indeed worried.  With WW maintenance I can gain up to 2 pounds over my goal no more.  So I weighed in last night and luckily.. only gained 1 pound on my trip.  Very impressive considering all the crap I ate (and a scone a day) and NOT drinking my daily water.. heck, not even a glass of water unless you count the water in all the beer I drank while I was away.

So, last nights weigh in was 151.2  pounds.

My goal this week is to get back to 150 pounds, stick to program and get back to the gym.  I have 3 more weigh ins until my maintenance ends and at the endof that I hope to get my lifetime membership with Weight Watchers.  Then I will continue to lose some weight, but very gradually.  I would like to be a bit smaller and toned.  My mom also agreed to continue to weigh in once a month with WW to help us stay healthy and not get back to our old habits (but a taco bell is in my future).

And since I gained a pound (OMG END OF THE WORLD! what will I ever do?!?!?) I'm going to re-post the poem (?) that helps me stay on track:

Only One Pound

Hello, do you know me? If you don't you should. I'm a pound of fat, and I'm the happiest pound of fat that you would ever want to meet. Want to know why? It's because no one ever wants to lose me; I'm Only One Pound, just a pound. Everyone wants to lose three pounds, five pounds or fifteen pounds, but never only one, so I just stick around and happily keep you fat. Then I add to myself ever so slyly so that you never seem to notice it, that is until I've grown to ten, twenty or even more pounds in weight. Yes, it's fun being Only One Pound of fat, left to do as I please. So, when you weigh in, keep right on saying "Oh, I only lost one pound." ( as if that were such a terrible thing!) For you see, if you do this you'll encourage others to keep me around because they will think I'm not worth losing. And I love being around you - your arms, your legs, your chin, your hips and every part of you. Happy Days!! After all, I'm Only One Pound of fat!!!

I'm back from my 9 day, 90% of my meals included/pre-ordered vacation in Scotland.

I left weighting 150.4 pounds (0.4 above my goal and that being night time, 7pm weight)).  This morning I was 150.8 pounds.. again.. morning weight.. so at night this might be a good 2-3 pounds heavier.  Not good.. but hey.. I was on Vacation.  Unfortunately, the food wasnt that great so I dont feel like I should have gained what I did... I hate gainning due to bad food.  If it tasted great and was high fat and I gained.. thats fine... It was worth it.  Mind you.. it was probably due to the beer.. and Im sort of OK with that.

Tonight I have a banquet.. with prime rib (omg yum!).  But after that.. I'm back on program.  Going to get back down to 148 pounds.  I figure I have two softball games tomorrow night, and one on Wednesday.  So this may help.  Oh.. I also didnt drink any water when I was away.. well.. maybe half a aglass a day or something... so I need to get back to drinking my 8+ glasses a day.  So with Softball season starting up, and getting my butt back to the gym I will get back on track and start losing.

Hope everyone else is having a better time then me currently... damn vacations ;) hehe

Oh yeah...that updating thing I'm supposed to do.

My weight loss is slowing down, but that's to be expected. I'm working harder and probably gaining muscle mass. A couple weeks ago I had a head cold type thing and I bought a bunch of soup and crackers and sort of stopped tracking things on Sparkpeople. Since then, I have not been tracking but have been trying to keep eating well and seeing if the few weeks of tracking helped retrain me a bit. So far so good. If I start to notice that I'm gaining back or if my loss completely stalls, I'll go back to tracking.

I'm still relying pretty heavily on Lean Cuisine and Lean Gourmet meals, but I'm going to start adding in some more cooked dinners and try to get into better habits with my own cooking. Lean Cuisine is great to rely on, but I can't rely on it forever.

Is anyone getting Wii Fit when it comes out? (when does it come out anyway?) My husband has promised to buy it for us and I'm really looking forward to it!

edit: Forgot my weigh in....last time I weighed it said 141

Alright ladies, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, I thought I'd post some recipes!

http://www.hungry-girl.com/girls/biteoutdetails.php?isid=1385

Or rather, a link, LOL.

These are great swap outs. I'm personally off to make the crunchwrap supreme thing.

This site is just all around excellent anyways. It provides a lot of great recipes for making healthier-esque options of fast food, guilt food, etc.

Hope this helps!

I feel like I've been hiding because I've been making really no progress lately. I would say I don't know why but... the calorie counts don't lie. I've just been overeating. This week is a bit more difficult since it's Holy Week and I try to follow a strict fast (no dairy, eggs, nothing with a backbone, no alcohol). You would think that would make me eat less and it has overall but mhmmm hummus and falafel and lots of other tasty Vegan things.

My big progress is I've started to run. I'm trying to the "Couch to 5K" program and it's not horrible. I did it twice last week and I'm not completely dead, which is pretty impressive since I always bail on running because I end up hurting myself. I try to do it Monday, Wednesday and Friday but I'm bailing today since I'm hurting from the last karate class (never go in complaining about work and ask to punch things). I got an account on We Endure to track my running progress.

Also, I track my calories on Calorie Count Plus. The tool bar is very neat and I'm pretty satisfied with the features, especially the weight tracking. According to the site I'm expected to reach goal by February 17th, assuming I actually start losing. I'm currently 186 (down from 220) and my goal is 143.7 (healthy weight).

And I think that's my update.

Did everyone have a bad week and no one wants to talk about it or something?

Well, I for one.. had a decent week.  Last night I went to weight watchers, weighed in and came in a 149.8 pounds.  Which meant I hit my WW goal! And now I am on maintenance.  It also means I have lost a total of 30 pounds, and for the first time (since maybe grade 4) I'm in the 140's!

Didnt get to the gym at all this week due to my 2 hr softball practice on Sunday making me ache in places I didnt know existed for about 3 days afterwards (seriously.. I never knew the socket where your leg meets your butt could hurt like it did).  I was a bit shocked since I thought I was in decent shape considering all the time I spend at the gym and stuff.. but I guess I havent been working out all those little muscles used in softball.

I did eat well though.  Kept track of my points/food and got all my water in every day.

Next week I doubt I'll get to the gym due to packing and trying to celebrate an evil Bday that I'm trying to ignore.  But when I get back from my vacation I will be back at that gym.  Monitor Monkey Promise!  Hopefully I wont gain more then a pound or two on my vacation (but hopefully I lose said pound or two first).

So come on ladies.. let's see some posts!

I just made this for myself and Momma Moo and it was delicious! So I thought I would share.  Very simple.. and well.. I dont tend to measure things in sauces.. But I will try my best to relay it.  This was for two sandwiches.

1 Chicken breast (4 oz)
- Butterflied in half and cooked (baked or bbq'd)

1 small apple
-peeled and sliced.   Marinated in some white wine then bake/bbq'd til just about soft (If they get too soft then will get smooshy and break up and thats a messy bbq)

Sauce
-1 tbsp low fat Kraft Miracle Whip Dressing
-1/2 tsp water (just wanted to thin it out a bit)
-1/4 tsp dill
-1/4 tsp sweet and spicey mustard (any mustard could do.. add some honey for the sweet part).
-Tabasco Sauce (to your hotness.. i like it super spicey so I used a lot).
Mix all the sauce ingredients together until incorporated.

Then I took a pita (the type you can open up.  Sliced in half so it was still a circle (so not a pocket.. but it can be done that way too).  Tossed on some lettuce, half the apple, and 1 piece of chicken on half the pita.  Spread on sauce and fold the other half of the pita up and TADA!

For the WW people, it worked out to about 4.5 points for one.

x-posted to our_ww_recipes, wow_doth and dota_health

I didn't really post a weigh in on Friday like I normally do. I weighed and had not lost any (still at 144), but when I weighed again on Sunday, the scale said 141. This morning it was 143. So, I'm fluctuating a bit. I think I have had a bit more loss, but I won't know for sure how much until I settle or something.

I'm phasing out the 100 calorie packs I was buying. I think they have helped me eat less and snack a bit more properly, but I feel bad about the all the excess packaging. Instead, I bought similar snacks and a set of rubbermaid storage containers so I can portion out my snacks for the day. I think the 100 Calorie packs helped me improve my habits and hopefully it'll stick with me and I won't be tempted to nom a whole box of anything. :p

I really needed the new storage containers. We really didn't have any decent ones at all. This set has 3 of each size. One size is perfect for a sandwich or whatever else. The other is perfect for a handful of some kind of snack...goldfish or triscuits, etc. The third is perfect for a tbsp or two of dip for veggies or maybe a couple spoonfuls of cottage cheese, etc. I think just having these perfect sizes for things will help. It also occurs to me that it might be fun to try Bento making. I've heard they're great for portion sizes, etc.

I'm taking sandwiches along for lunch most days. I'd like to branch out a bit and make some pasta salads and such. Also I bought a half dozen of eggs when I went grocery shopping today so I can boil them and take those along for quick noms while working.

So, all in all, staying on track and doing pretty well. Temptation has been there to really be bad and eat some fast food or something super sugary, but I haven't seemed to have much trouble with not giving into it. The weekends are my time to be a little bit more lax. I basically don't track my food intake on Sparkpeople.com for Saturday and Sunday. Overall, I don't eat poorly on those days, though...I just don't try so hard to make sure I have the exact right amount of calories, fat, protein, etc. Though, I do usually allow myself one or two SMALL portions of something bad for me. Hubby brought home some fried chicken for himself and I had ONE drumstick on each day. He knows I'm trying really hard, too, so he didn't buy a huge bucket or anything.

As this is my first post, I'll catch up what I'm doing. For exercise, I started belly dancing lessons a few months ago. It's a great low impact yet still aerobic activity. This week's been the first one I've done any extended practice (more than a few minutes at a time) at home, but despite that, I'm still feeling more fit (I can hold a shimmy for a minute and do the exercise ominously named 'torture hips). Hopefully, my newfound energy will make it so I feel more like cooking. I cook healthy; but I 'fast meal' lots of cheese and sweets and carbs. Tonight, though, is still pizza. But with a whole wheat crust, veggies, and light on cheese - cooked, not defrosted. It's a step.

As far as goals, while it would be nice to lose weight, I think I'm going to focus more on building stamina and bringing in more healthy lifestyle stuff. But I'll be glad if losing a few sizes comes along with that.

I bowed to the feedback I received about seeming anxious, depressed, and cranky and made an appointment with my doctor. I started Zoloft on Monday. And I really, really feel better. I wasn't expecting anything, but two days in, DH said he noticed a difference - usually when I have a project due at work, I'm impossible to live with the night before and morning of, and I was, apparently, sweet and nice this week. I have more energy; I have enthusiasm again. I like things, not just don't dislike, or vaguely approve. I don't want to just curl up in bed and sleep all the time. It's great!

The only off note is I can't sleep now; one of the possible side effects is insomnia, and it seems to be hitting in. So tonight I'm skipping a dose and starting to take them in the morning instead of at night before bed (another possible side effect is grogginess, so she said to take them at night at first), and I'm going to call the doctor before moving up from a half pill to a whole one, like she said to do next week. Still, I feel so much better!



Part cross posted to my journal for an update.